Polish up on new rules
What to expect as Shelby County nail salons reopen
The first day Gloss Nail Bar off Highland Street reopened, Lisa Grace was back. ❚ Before the coronavirus pandemic forced all three Gloss locations and other nail salons closed in March, Grace, 31, said she and her boss’s daughter had a standing appointment every two weeks. ❚ For the past two months she has been checking the salon’s Instagram page waiting to see when she could return. On Monday she finally saw it — the festive post inviting customers back. ❚ Tuesday morning Grace called to make an appointment. When she arrived, she was greeted with an entirely new environment.
To enter, she was required to wear a mask. Her nail technician wasn’t quite ready when Grace arrived, but instead of waiting inside, Grace was asked to wait outside. A directive from the Shelby County Health Department asked nail salons to close their waiting areas.
When it was her turn, Grace had to first get her temperature checked with a digital thermometer pointed at her forehead. Then she was ushered to a sink to wash her hands before she could sit on one side of a clear plexiglass partition and choose her nail color.
A nail technician wearing a mask sat on the other side and manicured Grace’s nails through a cut-out in the bottom of the partition.
“It’s really odd actually,” Grace said. “It’s a little uncomfortable to be honest, ... but that’s just what it’s calling for right now, I guess. I’m glad they are open for sure.”
While Grace said the measures caught her by surprise, she said the salon being clear about its rules helped take some of the guesswork out of her visit.
“You just never know what is expected of you or what is OK to do,” she said, adding that because every business seems to have different rules and individual people all have different preferences, knowing what’s appropriate can be difficult. “Am I too close to anybody? Is somebody going to feel awkward? I wish it was a little easier to know.”
Cautionary measures to continue
Karina Tong, the owner of Gloss Nail Bar, said she knows some might be surprised by the measures, but she felt it was necessary to keep both her staff and her customers safe.
“We’re so excited to be open and back working,” Tong said. “Kudos to our city council and our city officials for wanting to keep us safe. With all that time that we had, we worked up a game plan for how we would run things from now until this COVID-19 disappears.”
Tong said she had been waiting to hear when phase two of the Back-tobusiness plan would begin. While barber shops and hair salons were allowed to reopen in phase one, nail salons and spas stayed shut.
When no beginning date for phase two was announced on Friday, she thought it would take longer than expected. Then on Monday morning, the health department unexpectedly announced that salons could reopen immediately, and she started scrambling to put her plan in place and get her staff back to work.
Tong spent most of Tuesday morning driving between her three salons — one in Crosstown Concourse, one on Highland Street and one on Erin Drive in East Memphis — to make sure staff had everything they needed and the first customers understood why the precautions were necessary.
She said it’s likely she lost a little businesses to nearby counties whose salons opened before hers, but she was sure most of her clients would return.
Phones ringing nonstop
Directives issued by the health department lay out general rules for nail salons.
In addition to closing waiting areas, salons are asked to keep detailed appointment logs, require masks, gloves and temperature checks for staff, clean and disinfect regularly, and have enough soap and hand sanitizer on site for frequent hand cleaning.
The temperature checks and mask requirements for customers implemented at Gloss are encouraged by the health department directive but not required.
At Elite Nail Spa in Germantown, manager Tu Dihn said they have not required customers to wear masks, but they do encourage those who have them to wear them during their service.
For added protection, Elite Nail Spa has also added plexiglass partitions at every manicure station.
Dihn said the phones started ringing nonstop shortly after the announcement was made that phase two began Monday.
“It’s like every one or two minutes the phone was ringing with someone asking if we’re open,” Dihn said. “It’s a very good thing. I’m glad that people are supporting local businesses.”
Dihn added that several regular customers bought gift cards when the salon closed to make sure the financial losses didn’t force the salon to shut down permanently.
The shop opened at 9 a.m. Tuesday, and by 9:45 a.m., all five of the nail technicians working had customers. So many people showed up that they had to turn some customers away, encouraging them to either wait in their cars or make appointments for later in day or the week.
Although the rules vary for each salon, both Dihn and Tong said they will continue to operate under the new health directives as long as necessary to make sure they don’t contribute to the spread of the coronavirus.
“We’re just trying to do everything we can to eliminate the spread of any type of virus,” Tong said. “Not everyone will like it but we’re doing it . ... I feel like we need to contribute our part as a small business in this community to at least reduce the spread of it.”